


Haunted Places

by vailkagami



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Georgi's POV, and yet it's not really about Georgi, his life is not fair, poor Georgi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-21 15:28:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9555044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vailkagami/pseuds/vailkagami
Summary: Georgi Popovich spend all of his skating career in the shadow of Victor Nikiforov. Sometimes he wishes it was possible to actually resent the guy for it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So according to the anime, Georgi is either 25 or 27 years old when we meet him. This story assumes he's 27.

When he is twelve, Georgi Popovich gets to train in the ice skating summer camp of Yakov Feltsman, and he leaves enough of an impression to be invited to fully train under Feltsman in St. Petersburg the following winter. His family, bound to Yekaterinburg by work and other obligations, sends him to live with his uncle. Georgi is sad to be separated from his parents and siblings for the first time ever, but he is also prouder than he has ever been in his life, knowing he has been given an opportunity few young skaters ever get. He now has a chance to amount to something in this sport. What has been a time consuming hobby he was very passionate about becomes his plan for the future.

He vows to work hard, to make his family proud as well. One day he wants to be the best skater in all of Russia. Maybe in the world. He is twelve years old, and everything is possible.

He meets Victor Nikiforov the first day at his new rink. Technically they have met before, in the sense that they have been in the same place before, at a junior competition in Moscow the previous year, but they never talked then, or even got close to one another. Georgi doubts the other boy remembers him. He has been good at he event. Victor has been better, and that's why Georgi remembers his name. That, and because he thought that day that Victor, with his long silver hair and pretty face, and the androgynous blue and white combination he had worn for the competition, looked like something out of a fairy tale rather than a human being. He thinks the same thing now, when Victor is dressed in training slacks and wears his hair in a messy bun and moves across the ice as if the blades on his feet were optional.

They were competitors then, with Victor, who had already been training under Feltsman for a year, a league of his own at the event. Back then, Georgi thought how unfair it was; that of course a boy who trained with eight other kids at a small rink that was only open to them four times a week and got coached by a ballet instructor who discovered her love for skating after her career was already over did not stand a chance against a boy who was coached by a man with a history of creating world champions and Olympic medalists. If Georgi had the same training he _would_ have had a chance, he knew, and allowed the jealousy to happen because he has never been very good at not being emotional.

Now Victor is the first to take notice of Georgi when he enters, and skates over to greet him with a smile, and Georgi, who has left all his friend in Yekaterinburg and is trying very hard not to be lonely, is first and foremost happy to see a friendly face his own age among all these intimidating strangers.

Georgi soon finds out that most of his rink mates are friendly enough, though most of the older ones are too preoccupied with preparing for the next major competition to pay him much mind, and their coach is rather preoccupied with the older skaters who have major competitions coming up. Everyone seems pretty content to let Victor take care of the new guy, and to his credit, Victor does so happily enough. Georgi can't help being somewhat annoyed when the other boy has him demonstrate his skill set as if he were so much better than him that he got to judge, giving advice as if they weren't the same age, skating in the same league. Victor, however, doesn't seem to notice his sour mood, nor does it seem to occur to him that no one would be happy to hear how terrible their sit-spin looks. Georgi only refrains from snapping because he wants to make his parents proud and not get kicked out on his first day for starting a fight, and in the end Victor seems to be so genuinely eager to help him improve that he can't even stay angry at him for long, once their training is over.

His sit-spin has gotten better, too.

They start chatting while untying their skates, about things that have nothing to do with skating, with Victor asking question and seeming actually interested in the answers. He asks about Georgi's family, his new school, how he likes St. Petersburg so far, if he has any pets. No, he doesn't, but his uncle has two cats, so Georgi kind of has as well, now. Victor tells him he got a puppy two months ago, a poodle who is named Makkachin and always tries to steal food. His face lights up even more when he talks about her, and somehow she's the answer to every question Georgi asks in return.

The puppy was an early birthday present, he learns. Victor's birthday, it turns out, is December 25, just one day before Georgi's. They are almost twins by birth, and as different in looks as night and day. Georgi just doesn't know which of them would be the day, because he's got black hair, and eyes that are a darker shade of blue, like the night sky, but Victor's silver strands remind him of moonlight.

They get excited and amused when they compare their times of birth and find out that Georgi is actually a few hours older than Victor. He was born in Vladivostok, where his mother's parents still live, in the early hours of the morning, while Victor was born in St. Petersburg late at night. On the other end of the country, the next day had already started when he was born, and Georgi was already there.

It is unfair that Victor gets to celebrate his birthday first, Georgi complains, jokingly, and they both laugh about it. Later Georgi will feel like this moment has been warning from the universe that he completely missed: that whatever he will do in his life, however fast he gets anywhere, Victor will always be the one to be noticed first.

 

-

 

By the time he is fifteen, Georgi is not the top skater of Russia. He's not even the top junior skater. He is good. He's one of the best. Victor just won the junior world championship, with flowing hair and a glittering, black, see-through outfit that would not have seemed out of place in an erotic movie. Georgi, watching him with a mix of envy and admiration, wonders why the other boy even bothered to go for sexy in his performance when the sheer, youthful joy of being on the ice is so visible on his face. Victor told him at the beginning of the season that he was certain the audience was getting tired of his nice-and-harmless image of previous years and he wanted to try something else for a change.

Georgi wonders why he doesn't just represent his own true self on the ice. He has to admit that Victor is good, better than him in every technical aspect, but he thinks he would be even better if he would just stop wearing masks. The fact that Victor gets to beat him while neglecting the most important part of the performance bothers him more than it would have if he'd just been himself out there. Genuine emotion is something Georgi strives on. He never bothers to hide his. He uses the ice to let everyone know how he feels, and is sometimes so touched he has to cry when his kind fans write him letters asking if he is okay because he seemed so heartbroken during his latest performance, or congratulate him on whatever made him happy.

Victor doesn't have that. He doesn't want it. Georgi thinks he's doing his fans a disservice, because they never get to actually know the person they are cheering for. When he brings it up with Victor one day, Victor smiles his pleasant smile and says, “I don't think anyone would actually want to see my true self. It's boring. They want to be entertained, so I'll just try to be someone entertaining.”

Georgi thinks he's missing the point. He thinks the nice-and-harmless image Victor had before suited him better, because he _is_ nice, but that it was no less of a mask than the new on-screen persona that tries to be an adult, because he sure as hell isn't harmless and never was. The fans are enjoying it, though. They don't know what Victor really is like and maybe they don't care. Georgi probably doesn't know him either – they get along well enough but aren't exactly friends, and since puberty hit and Georgi started dating his darling Vera, they barely even see each other long enough to exchange words that are not skating advice.

They are very different people. It's not surprising that they aren't close. It's nice that they get along during the long, long hours they spend training together, but outside the rink, Georgi has other friends, and a girlfriend, and two cats that belong to his uncle, and to himself, too, in a way.

Victor probably has friends as well, Georgi thinks. He doesn't really know, and doesn't really think about it. He's got fans, in any case – plenty of fans, much more than Georgi has. Fans who don't really know him, and don't seem to truly care who they are supporting. People drawn by Victor's success and beauty rather than his person, and Georgi wonders (sometimes with anticipation, sometimes with mild dread) how deep their support will truly prove to be once Victor stops being so damn successful. He thinks his own fans are better. They love him even if he doesn't place.

 

-

 

His early twenties are a trying time for Georgi. He feels drained by the ups and downs of his personal life, and while skating centers him and allows him to work through his feelings, there is a time when the frustration is winning out more often than the joy because whatever he does, it's never good enough to be recognized as anything but “that other Russian skater”.

He resents Victor for it, and knows it's not fair. It's not like he expects Victor to throw competitions for him. He just sometimes, in his more petty moments, wishes his rink mate had been born a decade earlier or later, so that Georgi would not have to spend his entire career in his shadow.

They never celebrate Victor's birthday at the rink, since it usually coincides with the Nationals. Someone always has a bouquet of flowers for him, everyone always gives their best wishes, and Victor always receives them with a happy smile and replies to the question of parties that he has to focus on the competition.

To be fair, the reporters who interview Georgi tend to remember his birthday as well, although most years the championship is over by the time his date rolls around. His rink mates, Victor included, tend to bring flowers and chocolate. In those years when it becomes painfully obvious that he is always, always going to be second best, he still feels like an afterthought, and he hates that. He wants to appreciate what people give him, not constantly long for more.

Vera leaves him when he is twenty, and that doesn't help his mood any. If he weren't so involved with his sport all the time, she would not have felt neglected and would have stayed with him. If he gave up skating and devoted all his time to her, she'd come back for sure. Yakov turns red when Geogri thinks those thoughts out loud where his coach can hear him and yells a lot of insults that basically come down to Georgi thinking his with penis.

Yakov is recently divorced. What does he know? But his anger makes Georgi feel like giving up his career would be a waste, and that means his career matters. He's actually flattered by his coach's yelling, he finds eventually, and decides to make his renewed dedication to skating his new theme for the season.

He has a chance to make it to the Grand Prix finale for the first time that year but has a bad fall and breaks his ankle in his final free skate that would have won him the ticket. His motivation vanishes at once. The season is over for him and for a while he is determined to give up skating for good, because _what is the point_?

Victor wins the Grand Prix for the second time, but suffers a bad injury during warm up at the Nationals two weeks later. Much worse than Georgi's. Bad enough that people are whispering about how his career is probably over now. _What a waste_ , Georgi hears everywhere. _He was so good!_

Georgi feels sorry for him. He honestly does – Victor is a good guy, after all, and Georgi actually likes him (though sometimes he wonders if that's just because it's impossible not to) and doesn't wish that on him. And it _is_ a waste, because Victor has so much potential. But it also makes Georgi decide to keep skating. Through his entire career, Victor was always the one obstacle he could not overcome. How foolish it would be to give up when it is finally gone!

So he fights to get back in shape. He commits. He gets good again, maybe better than before. He wins the European Championship for the first time in his life, places third at Worlds and second in the Grand Prix. By the time Georgi wins the nationals just before his twenty-second birthday, Victor is already back at the rink, with short hair and almost feverish determination, and holding all of Yakov's attention as their coach helps their fallen superstar get strong enough to wring another season or two out of his strained body.

 

-

 

When he is twenty-six, just weeks shy of his twenty-seventh birthday, Georgi is at the grand prix finale for the fifth time in his life. He is not competing in it. He didn't make it this year, has only made it three times in his entire career. Four years ago he went to sit in the audience because it was held in St. Petersburg and both Victor and Alexei were competing, so obviously he was there to cheer for them.

Alexei got bronze that year, his second best grand prix result ever, and retired afterward. He's a choreographer now, and has done more than one of Georgi's programs since then. Victor is creating his own these days, and has for several years. He's presenting his latest short program once again tonight, and has realistic chances for winning gold for the fifth time in a row. In fact, it's expected of him. He hasn't even skated yet, and Switzerland's Christophe Giaccometti has given a solid, passionate performance that will be hard to beat, and yet, Georgi knows people will be shocked if Victor walks out of this hall in two days with anything other than another gold medal hanging around his neck.

And why would they not? Victor's programs are strong, higher in difficulty than anything the competition has to offer, and he hasn't made a grave mistake in forever. Georgi cannot imagine that kind of pressure, Victor's existence having never allowed for him to be in a position where the general public expected him to win. Victor is cheerful and confident as always, though. With the other skaters not matching him in skill, he can only defeat himself, and it does not seem like he will.

It's a bit boring, really, and frustrating. Georgi feels for his rink mate's rivals in this finale, competing against each other for second place. Male figure skating has been like this for too many years. Victor Nikiforov continues to amaze everyone, but perhaps at this point the only thing that he could do to really surprise the audience is not win.

Well. He's not going to lose on purpose. Someone will have to simply be better than him, and it does not look like anyone will today, Georgi thinks as he watches the young Canadian on the ice give a strong performance with a quad and two high-value combinations that he knows are nowhere near what Victor has planned for this evening.

Maybe Victor will fall for once. It does happen, if rarely, and it would make things more interesting, yet Georgi doesn't actually hope for it. He's not the kind of person who would wish ill on someone simply because he is annoyed by their well-deserved success.

The audience certainly is on Victor's side, with the final being in Russia and all. Still, Sochi is a long way from St. Retersburg, and Georgi did not come here to cheer for Victor but to support his beloved Anya, his muse, who is competing in the ice dance finale. (Just thinking about her moving across the ice in tune with her music makes shivers run down his spine. Georgi can hardly wait to see it again in her free dance – the only thing he awaits more eagerly is taking her into his arms when she is done and showering her with kisses.) But he _is_ going to cheer for Victor when he skates, because he's here already and it would be silly not to. He's also cheering also for the other men fighting for gold down on the ice, because they all deserve the support and other than Victor may actually need it.

A few rows of seats below him, the jacket of a Swiss training suit catches his attention. Chris Giaccometti has been a frequent participant in the grand prix final for several years, almost as often as Victor, and he usually places high. He's never been able to win when Victor was around, and the one year he made it to the final and Victor did not, owing to his injury, Giacometti failed to make use of the chance he had and finished sixth, giving the worst performance Georgi had seen from him in years. He's done much better this year and was leading until a minute ago, when the Canadian's score was announced. He's not far behind, though. He can probably make up for it with his free program.

A few seats to the left of the Swiss skater, a young Asian with slicked-back hair and glasses is watching along with everyone else as Victor takes to the ice and assumes his starting position after greeting the audience. Georgi recognizes the skater from Japan, one of Celestino's guys and not all that young anymore, as figure skaters go, but participating in the finale for the first time. He was the first to compete today, and Geogi found himself captivated by his beautiful performance and strong step sequences, even though the man's apparent inability to land any high-difficulty jumps cost him a lot of points. A pity, really. He ranks fourth right now, but unless Victor does defy all expectations by spectacularly messing up both his programs, it would take an inhuman free skate for the Japanese skater to make it to the podium this year.

But amazing things happen in sports sometimes. That is one of the reasons why Georgi loves figure skating. Anyone can make a mistake that will cost too many points, so the tension remains high until the last moment.

It does not look like Victor will mess up today, though. Georgi can tell, even half a minute into his rink mate's short program. He has already landed a quad toe-loop and is speeding up for a triple-triple combination with his eyes half-closed, looking beautiful and otherworldly as he glides across the ice. The relatively plain black costume he is wearing looks elegant rather than boring on his tall and slender frame, and he is moving with the music so perfectly that it almost makes up for all the passion his performance does not show.

No one else seems to notice. Both Giacometti and the Japanese guy seem captivated – Celestino's boy - Katsuki, wasn't it? - even sits up straight now, so he can see better, after attempting to melt into his seat earlier. Georgi feels sorry for the guy. He has potential, but it seems his nerves are his main enemy. He's seen it it many skaters, and too many of them retire after a mediocre career without ever being able to show their full potential.

Georgi does not share this problem. His emotions are often in the way of his performance, but he does get to show all his skill often enough. It's just that his skill on his best day is not enough to beat Victor on an average one.

Perhaps a part of his has resigned to his fate. He's already almost twenty-seven, and even though Victor is just as old, there's little hope that he will retire while Georgi is still in his prime. The two competitors sitting below him may have a chance, though, if they don't give up. The Japanese one, and even Giaccometti, they may have a few good seasons without Victor eventually. Giaccometti would have won several times already, had Victor not been in his way all the time. And Katsuki may have even more potential; Georgi could see that much in his artistic performance. If he learns to keep his nerves in check and gets more secure in his jumps, he might yet become one of the truly great ones. All he needs is for Victor to disappear.

Georgi likes his rink mate, he really does. But he is well aware that Victor is the worst thing that could possibly happen to him, and Giacometti, and Katsuki, and all the other male single skaters of their generation.

Victor performs his signature move, the quad flip. The audience cheers. Georgi cheers with them, and watches the combination spin unfold, and thinks that maybe he was wrong – maybe Victor disappearing would not change a thing, because he's disappearing already, and no one seems to even notice. Georgi does, because he sees Victor almost every day. He knows, because he knew him as an excited child and as a teenager who maybe tried to find himself for a while but eventually settled into whatever role people wanted him in at any given time. Oh, what Victor could be, if his heart was still in it!, Georgi muses as he listens to the music and the shouts of awe around him. And for a moment he is sad, because as frustrating as Victor's inhuman skill and single-minded focus on his sport can be, perhaps he could have been even more, if he had let himself.

At this point, Georgi doesn't even know who he is watching right now. He has always believed in expressing himself through his art and has lost touch with Victor more and more as the other skater carefully sorted through his feelings and hand picked the ones he allowed the people around him to see. Georgi has no respect for that. And sometimes, like now, he is overcome with sadness, and maybe nostalgia, as if he were looking at a long lost photograph, now barely recognizable and bleached from years in the sun.

Victor's hair flies with the speed he's picking up for his final jump. It's still silken and silver like moonlight, but now it makes Georgi think of ghosts. It's like Victor, the enthusiastic, confident, insanely tallented boy Georgi met when he moved to St. Petersburg, has long since faded away, leaving behind a specter that haunts the rink, occupying the space and keeping anyone else from moving in until it is driven away. For a moment Georgi considers using the Ghostbusters theme for his next program, but no – he is no exorcist. He is self-aware enough to know that much.

He cannot free the ice halls of the world from Victor's shadow, but someone else certainly will, eventually. Perhaps Yuri Plisetsky, that young kid currently gearing up for his senior debut next year. He's good. If he doesn't get injured and makes it well through his transformation into an adult in a few years, he may be great. He might be the next superstar of Russia soon, and Georgi cannot even be envious. Because even if that kid will be better than him, he will still be human. Tangible. Touchable, and, ultimately, beatable.

Not like Victor, who is like moonlight on water, fluid and ethereal and impossible to grasp. Watching the final leap of the short program, Georgi has a fleeting thought about drowning, but it escapes him in the noise of the crowd and the excitement over another perfectly landed quad.

 

 

1 February 2017

**Author's Note:**

> Also contributes to my current [grenprompt-bingo card](http://vail-kagami.dreamwidth.org/13690.html), prompt: _Introspection_


End file.
